How an Air Force Veteran Turned Remote Duplexes Into a STR Freedom Plan

0:00I at the time was living in Philadelphia area, Pennsylvania. I had looked in my market. There wasn't, you know, the price point was a little higher than what I wanted. The numbers weren't as juicy. So I knew that I was going to have to likely whatever I got I was going to be managing remotely. It took me a while to get comfortable with that idea, but once I did, I started kind of looking in a couple of markets that I was interested in that I really like the numbers just initially.

0:32And I just waited to see what would hit on the MLS. I set up my search, you know, alerts on realtor.com. It's a really easy place to do that. Because I think initially I was getting a lot of alerts or I was just looking a lot and it was it was a lot. So, I just needed to kind of reduce the noise and only be exposed to the properties that would potentially fit what I wanted. So, once I kind of tuned fine-tuned my realtor.com, you know, search criteria and I started getting listings, I knew when I got those, okay, this is one I need to run and take a look at.

1:09It's in the neighborhood I want. It's in the price point I'm looking for. So, kind of the initial work was done for me. So, that first one hit the MLS. It was a builder who basically took like a little culde-sac and he built I think four or five duplexes just right next to each other. And it was a new build duplex which that appealed to me as well since I was long distance. It's my first one. I'm not ready to handle a rehab. So I kind of want something fairly turnkey.

1:41So I just kind of fell into that. I I I retained a you know I got a realtor I think on Bigger Pockets who was helping me and I got with him and I put in an offer got accepted. So that was my first one. You know I partnered with a friend on that who was also pursuing real estate cuz she and I were both getting started. You know I think we were just like let's just do this together and we'll learn on it together. And it's been a really fantastic experience. Past that, you know, once I got that one up and running, I think it was about a year later that I said, you know, I'm going to flip the switch on for those alerts and start looking in that same market.

2:21Maybe I can get something, you know. It had gotten more competitive in that market. So, I was also looking somewhere else simultaneously. But I had asked that realtor that I worked with, you know, I said, "Do you know if that builder has any any properties? I'm looking for multif family. Maybe he's building something." I didn't have the builder's contact information. Or maybe I just didn't feel comfortable reaching out to him because I had used the realtor in the past. So, he got in touch with that builder and I just, you know, luck would have it.

2:54The guy said, "Well, yeah, I'm looking to he has a bunch of duplexes. I'm looking to offload one one more duplex cuz I'm shifting my capital into RV parks and I need to free up capital." It was just like a, you know, coincidental that I happened to ask. So, you know, he sent me some photos and then he said, "Actually, there's, there's a second one and, you know, I realized I need more capital. Are you interested in two duplexes?" And I was like, "Yeah, sure. Let's go for it. Send me the stuff. I'll run my numbers." so that's kind of how that panned out, you know, and he and I are in touch.

3:29I've, you know, since made a good connection with him. He's, I mean, since he knows that I'm operating in that area. He's offered me things, you know. So it's just been like a a cool connection to have, you know, he's just a local guy that started building in that area and continues to do so. So — interesting. Wow. So all three came from the same builder. — Yeah. Mhm. — Wow. Okay. I didn't realize that. That's awesome. So, and and how did you pick Greenville? — Oh, man.

4:02So, I had never visited Greenville in my life. You know, I'd been to Charleston, which is close by, been to Atlanta, which is kind of over there, Charlotte, but right in the middle of all that is Greenville. And I knew that going non-local, like going at a distance, I would have to get comfortable with analyzing numbers versus physically being on a site. — so I thought, you know what, I'm just going to see where the numbers lead me.

4:34So I base that off of the industry that's in Greenville. There's, you know, there's a BMW plant there. Clemson is not too far away. The city's been growing. People are moving from, you know, the northeast and the and California into the southeast. So, South Carolina is experiencing a lot of population growth. So there were a few factors where I thought I think this can support a good good rental. You know, it was — kind of like a mid midpop populated city.

5:05Not like Atlanta or Charlotte, but it's not something that, you know, no one's ever heard of. So, it's kind of how I landed there. I was also looking, I think, in the Indianapolis suburbs. So, just to see what hit first. And Greenville popped first with this opportunity and that's just how I landed there. So, yeah. — Yeah. Yeah. And I think, it's just really sound fundamentals, you know, that that area like it's like you said, got a lot of population growth like industry, you know, lots of people moving there that relates to high growth and high appreciation over time.

5:44I think if people are just investing from a cash flow standpoint, you know, a lot of times they're drawn to the Midwest where things are, you know, a bit cheaper, but it's kind of a mix. I think that area is such a good mix of both where it's like you're going to get a lot of upside long term — and you can still cash flow at the same time, especially with short-term rentals. So, — that's great. So, what did you learn from that experience? I mean, what what has been some of the biggest lessons learned as you have purchased some of these short-term rentals?

6:17— Yeah, I think you know, it's, you know, you think, well, I need to be on site to inspect this property. I need to put my eyes on this property. I think I had to come to terms with because I'm investing at a distance, I have to get comfortable with, figuring out how to do everything at a distance. So, my realtor's on the ground, right? He is getting a commission and he is paid to provide me photos, a video walkth through. You know, anything I need for eyes on the ground that I can't do, you know, at a distance.

6:52So, had to get comfortable with that. You know, my inspector, I pay for an inspection. This guy is inspected. That's his job is to inspect a building and give me a list of every little thing that's wrong with the property. I don't have enough experience or I didn't at that time to walk into a building and do that. So, I'm paying an expert to give me a report and it's like now I have it on a sheet of paper. I'm not getting I guess emotionally involved with the property and that was kind of better for me, you know, nothing was hanging me up with like nothing emotional or non-tangible was preventing me from investing in the property.

7:31It was all let's focus on what needs to be fixed. Let's focus on what did the realtor show me in the photos like so I think that's that's a good lesson I've learned is like you know you can do this at a distance I was very I was very afraid to do that initially what I did is I sought out people who were doing that you know I thought there are people who have done this and I can be one of them too Michelle Norman I believe was one that you interviewed early on in your podcast and I got in touch with her she gave me some great tips she'd done it all from a distance.

8:04Yeah, — having a great team on the ground is also a good lesson I've learned. You know, I've physically gone to my properties and met all of my team members, so they know I'm a real person. We make a personal connection. I try to support them however I can. You know, I'm available when they need me. I try to, you know, I give a Christmas bonus at the end of the year to like my head cleaner. Nice. — You know, I just think it's nice to form these personal relationships with people who are they're running their own business, too. So, yeah, having a great team is is definitely essential.

8:39It's it's a lesson I learned. So, yeah. — Yeah. — Yeah. And I think a lot of people will invest in education and and learning, but then when it comes time to actually pull the trigger on a deal, it feels still very intimidating, you know. And so what was it for you, I guess, specifically that made you feel confident that you know that you were making the right decision when it came time to, okay, we're going to the closing table and I'm paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for for a property.

9:13Especially the first very first time. What was that like? — for me, I think what made me comfortable with that, I I kept my numbers very conservative. I actually ran a financial analysis. You know, I had people in my network in the class I was in who had done this before who were able to poke holes in whatever deal I'd brought to them. So I knew my numbers were sound because I even ran what's the worst case worst case scenario is I break even on this and that was still okay for my goals at the time just to get in.

9:45So yeah. — Yeah. Yeah. And so you mentioned building your team then because I think so, so for us like I think half the people that we've worked with in the the blueprint program have have invested remotely and about half locally and and what I see is what you're saying, you know, the people who invest remotely, it it kind of forces them to just lean into a system that doesn't feel natural initially. It's like, well, I need to be there to do all this stuff.

10:17But because they can't be, they they they set up systems better and they're able to move quicker then because they're not bogged down with all the the day-to-day of doing things physically themselves. So, what was that like to build your team? You know, were there any missteps there? And then did you learn anything about, you know, certain cleaners or, you know, team members? And what was that process like? Yeah. So, initially with this first property, my you know, I went I mentioned I went halves on it with with a part business partner of mine, my friend of mine.

10:51And she and I, you know, she lives in Manhattan. I was in Philadelphia at the time, so neither of us were there on the ground. And we had worked into our numbers a property manager. And you know, I had I had run we did a long-term analysis on it. So, we were running 10% for a property manager at the time. When they put it on the market for us to rent it as a long-term we knew that I I guess we kind of learned through them and through additional research once we were in that market that there was a short-term rental demand there.

11:27And that property manager that we engaged, they actually were they specialized in short-term rentals, but we had asked them, we want to do a long-term rental. Can you do this for us? And they said yes. So we kind of we had the both sides listed as a long-term rental. And the more we talked to them, we said, "You know what? It's been about a week. We haven't gotten any bites. What if we furnish one side and we do a midterm rental?" Like, it was like, "Let's just dip our toe into that." — yeah. — And you know, so we said, "We'll invest the money up front." They did all the furnishing.

11:58They had a designer come in. We paid a fee and it included all the furniture and basically everything. So having that I think initially for the very first one was so nice to have like a basically a vendor that would go in and do all that. They did the photos, they created the listing. You know now I'm able to do that. I feel fully confident doing that myself. But for the very first one it was like we're not there. She and I both had full-time jobs. We're pretty busy. Like this make just makes sense to try to do this. So we had that property manager initially.

12:30They managed that property and we ended up doing both sides of the duplex as short-term rental. We fully committed to that. And they managed it for about a year. At that year point, my business partner and I said, "We should probably visit the property. We haven't even been down there yet. We we didn't even go down for the closing. We did it all remotely." So, we took a trip down. And you know, of course, when you're in person with your own property, you are, you know, you will manage your property way better than anyone else ever could because you're going to see things that are the smallest things, you know, and we went down there and we just saw a lot that they were doing that we thought, I think we can do this better and we can keep more money in our account.

13:17We don't need to pay out someone. I think we were paying 25%. That's, you know, pretty standard for a short-term rental, you know, boutique company that's managing. And they were pretty good, but we thought we can do this better. She's also a veteran, too. She's a Navy veteran. So, so we went down with a plan. Let's see. We saw the property. Then we said, we're going to come back in a couple months. We're going to go back home. We're going to talk to our property manager, tell them, "Thank you very much. We want to wrap up this relationship and then we're going to schedule time to come back down here in a couple months and we're going to line up a bunch of interviews and we're going to find our team.

13:53So, that's what she and I did. We prepared. We said, "All right, we're going to do cleaner and handyman." She found the cleaners. I found the handyman. We did phone screens with them prior. We said, "We're a short-term rental. We're looking for someone for the handyman, for example. We're looking for someone who can respond. If I need someone at, you know, Saturday at 2:00 p.m. And, you know, something's wrong with the TV remotes, like I need someone who can stop by the house and handle something as small as that. So it was kind of like we pre-screened via phone call.

14:26And then after that, we said, "Okay, you've been pre-screened. They check all the boxes that we wanted." And then, we scheduled them for an in-person interview. And we just lined them up at the property. It was like every 30 minutes we had a slot where we were at the property and we had someone come and we let them see the property, we interviewed them. You know, and I think just doing that, interviewing, we probably interviewed five cleaning companies and probably the same amount of handymen. And just seeing that alone kind of gave us a gauge for what to expect.

15:02You know, after the first cleaner interview, we were like, "Yeah, she's pretty good. She probably work." Then we got to the second one, we're like, "Oh my gosh, that first one will never work. Like, she's not going to show up at all. Like, we're in trouble. There are people doing it better." So, you kind of learn like who's operating in your market by doing that. And that's kind of how we met people, built our team, we got our primary and backup cleaners and handyman from that. So you know, we physically went down just did a blitz week of interviews.

15:35— Yeah, that's a great process. So, and how did you find those those cleaners to interview? Where is it from referrals or online or — Yeah, I think my my business partner did the cleaner side. She I think started on like Next Door, Facebook, that sort of thing just to get who was doing it in the space, who who was who was cleaning. And then you want to know, do they specialize in short-term rentals? Cuz it's a very different clean than if you're cleaning, you know, longer term or, you know, people are there.

16:05It's just like a completely different skill set. And I think how she found our current cleaner, she had called a cleaner and they said, "We don't do that." And she said, "Do you know someone who does?" And from there, that woman said, "Well, I do know another cleaning company. They don't advertise and she's probably going to want to interview you guys and I was like this is our this is our cleaning company if they are as selective with their customers as I am being with them as a vendor like that's what you want they have their stuff together so yeah